Manx Place-Names: an Ulster View

37 Manx Place-Names: an Ulster View Kay Muhr In this chapter I will discuss place-name connections between Ulster and Man, beginning with the early appearances of Man in Irish tradition and its association with the mythological realm of Emain Ablach, from the 6th to the I 3th century. 1 A good introduction to the link between Ulster and Manx place-names is to look at Speed's map of Man published in 1605.2 Although the map is much later than the beginning of place-names in the Isle of Man, it does reflect those place-names already well-established 400 years before our time. Moreover the gloriously exaggerated Manx-centric view, showing the island almost filling the Irish sea between Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, also allows the map to illustrate place-names from the coasts of these lands around. As an island visible from these coasts Man has been influenced by all of them. In Ireland there are Gaelic, Norse and English names - the latter now the dominant language in new place-names, though it was not so in the past. The Gaelic names include the port towns of Knok (now Carrick-) fergus, "Fergus' hill" or "rock", the rock clearly referring to the site of the medieval castle. In 13th-century Scotland Fergus was understood as the king whose migration introduced the Gaelic language. Further south, Dundalk "fort of the small sword" includes the element dun "hill-fort", one of three fortification names common in early Irish place-names, the others being rath "ring fort" and lios "enclosure". In between are Belfast, now more important than Carrickiergus, meaning "approach to the sandbank ford", and Newry, another natural history name meaning "place of yew trees"- tree names also being a common feature of Irish placenames. The importance of saints in ecclesiastical names is shown by the saint's name Patri[c]k at Down (also dun), and Island Patri[c]k further south. It was probably this Inis Patraic "Patrick's Island" which was attacked by the Vikings in AD 798, but it has sometimes been understood as Peel i.e. St Patrick's Island of the Isle of Man. Viking influence in the Irish Sea gathered in strength from the late 8th century. The east coast of Ireland also shows, between Rathlin and Dublin, three sea loughs which bear Norse or Norse influenced names: Olderfleet (now the entrance to Lame Lough), I According 10 the conventions of name studies, Manx place-names in current use are not italicised, only word-elements in Manx (and other languages) and earlier spellings of names. 2Illus. (See page 36) John Speed's map of Man 1605, from Thomas Durham's survey 1595 (Cubbon 1974) 38 Kay Muhr Strangford and Carlingford. The first name was understood by them as Ulfrekr'sfjorffr, though "Ulfrekr" was probably a re-interpretation of the Irish river name Ollarbha, now the Lame Water which enters the lough at this point3. The others are strang fjorar "strongcurrent fjord" and kerlingafjorar "hag's fjord" (PNI ii 6 - 8, PNI i 83). Scotland shows the district name Galloway, the "place of the foreign/Viking Gaels" colonised by the mixed Gaelic and Norse-speaking people of the Hebrides (Watson 1926 101, 173 - 4). Ulster however has apparently no Viking settlement names. On the Isle of Man also the Vikings settled the land as well as using the harbours. Names on Man include the Norse names now spelled as Fleshwick, "green-spot creek" ON flesvlk (Kneen 34); Jurby, "deer settlement, animal farm", ON djura-by (PNIM ii 245); Point of Ayre, "gravel bank" from ON eyrr (PNIM iii 176); Ramsey, "wild garlic river" from ON hrams-d (PNIM iv 167); Laxey, "salmon river" from ON laks-d, the river noted for salmon fishing in 1668. As with Ramsey, and the Gaelic name Douglas, the name has been transferred to the settlement from the river (PNIM iv 326). The parish names are shown beginning with Kirk "church", of Norse origin, but the spelling of the rest indicates a more authentic Gaelic pronunciation of the saints' names than the current English versions: Kirk Mighhill (Michael), Kirk Bridge (Bride), Kirk Maghaul (Maughold) - where the final -d from the Latinised form Machaldus does not appear. Similar names from Ulster (none unfortunately on the map) would be in Gaelic Cill Mhichil, Cill Bhr{de "Michael's church, Brigid's church". The element cill I keeill was still used for church sites by Manx speakers (PNIM ii 77, iv 120). St Patrick appears in Kirk Patrik of the peel and again in Kirk Patrack at Jurby. From the Isle of Man as mapped by Englishmen at the beginning of the 17th century we return to the Ulster view, as old as written literature in Irish. Emain (Ablach) "Emain of the appletrees" An Old Irish story in prose and verse describes a sea-voyage to the Otherworld by a legendary hero called Bran "raven" son of Febal (Meyer 1895). Bran's name links him with the north coast, since his father's name is that of the river Foyle ( Febal) which passes Srub Brain "Bran's promontory" now Sroove at the most northern point of its estuary. However on the voyage Bran meets the Irish sea god Manannan who claims to be the real father of a historical royal prince of the Ddl nAraide kindred of east Ulster, Mongan son of Fiachna (d.625) (AU 112 - 113). The story begins dramatically with the appearance of a woman from "unknown lands" bearing a branch of apples. She offers it to Bran and in verse invites him to follow her: Crab dind abaill a hEmain 'A branch of the apple-tree from Emain do-Jet samail do gndthaib I bring like those well-known' (Immram Brain §3). The name Emain appears to belong to the land from which she comes, and yet it was well-known as the name of the traditional capital of prehistoric Ulster Emain Macha, 3Mac Giolla Easpaig, D. 2000. Unpublished article: "Scandinavian influence on the toponymy of Ireland," 39-43. Manx Place-Names: an Ulster View 39 Emain "of the cultivated land", now Navan Fort west of Armagh. By the time this tale was written, that Emain, famous as the king's dwelling in the Ulster Cycle epic tales, was no longer held by the original Ulaid or Ulstermen. Relocating it in less circumscribed territory might be a way of salvaging their lost pride. The wonderful Emain (sometimes Emnae) of Bran's adventures in this tale is out at sea. The sea-god Manannan takes his name from the Isle of Man and it seems that Emain/Emnae can also be identified with his kingdom. Displaced (and Christian) Ulstermen, the story asserts, can still be sons of the gods, as the chief Ulster Cycle warrior Cu Chulainn was fathered by Lugh (Muhr 1996 55 - 6). Bran's voyage is a story of wonders, but 6th-century history also asserts that the peoples of east Ulster were taking to the sea in search of new territory. The Ddl Riata group of the north-east took themselves and the Gaelic language to north-western Scotland. Late in the century the Annals of Ulster record in Latin that the Ulaid (probably meaning Ddl nAraide of the mid-east with Ddl Fiatach of the south-east, or Ddl Fiatach alone) attempted to claim Man. Since the annals were being written in Latin at this date the names are Latinised: (AU 88-90.) AD 577 Primum periculum Uloth in Eufania "First expedition of the Ulaid to Man" AD 578 Reversio Uloth de Eumania "Expulsion of the Ulaid from Man" (?) The spelling of the genitive plural Uloth (later Uladh) shows this is a near contemporary record, while the spellings Eumania!Eufania (the latter presumably recognising the lenition of m to v) represent the name Emain rather than Man. However a record four years later of the Scottish Dai Riata king Aeddn mac Gabrdn '.s victory in the battle of Manu (declined as a nasal stem, Bel/um Manonn) reminds one that neither place-name is unique (AU 582), and that this time Man[u] refers to Manaw Gododdin, a British district name preserved in Clackmannan or Slamannan "stone, mountain of Manann" on the Firth of Forth in Scotland (Watson 1926, 103). A century later an Ulster-Man connection is recorded in Muirchu's Life of Saint Patrick, (Bieler 1979 102 - 6 = Muirchti I 23) which includes the story of Patrick's meeting, in Ulaid territory (in regionibus Ulothorum), the wicked tyrant Mac Cuill moccu Greccae, who held court from a wild place in the hills called Droim Moccu Echach. Since it also appears to be near Lecale (Mag Inis) and the sea, Droim Moccu Echach "ridge of the descendants of Echu" is unlikely to be Dromore inland4 and Moccu Echach are probably the descendants of Echu Gunnat, Ddl Fiatach ruler of the Ards peninsula, who were overthrown by the Vikings in the 9th century. The Life tells how Mac Cuill attempted to discredit and kill Patrick, but was converted by his power and baptised, and told for penance to shackle his feet and throw the key in the sea, then set himself afloat in a small boat without rudder or oar and accept his fate from the wind and the sea. The wind blew him to an island called Evonia, s where he was taken in by the first two bishops to baptise and preach there. He learned the practice of his faith from them until he became (editor Bieler's translation and brackets): 4Pacc Bieler index 257.

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